Fortune-teller rebuts news that premier visited him

Premier Wu Den-yih speaks to reporters yesterday before the start of an annual mediation awards ceremony in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

A fortune-teller yesterday denied reports that Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had consulted him during a recent visit to Greater Taichung.

In its latest issue yesterday, the weekly Chinese-language Next Magazine reported that Wu and his wife, Tsai Ling-yi (蔡令怡), often have their fortune told, and that Tsai has told family members that her husband’s prospects are bright and that he has an “emperor’s destiny (皇帝命).”

Fortune-teller Lin Cheng-fu (林政夫) rose to fame two years ago with his prediction that Wu would be promoted to premier. The report said that impressed Tsai enough for her to take Wu along for a reading.

On June 19, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) announced Wu would be his running mate in next year’s presidential election.

Lin is a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine practicing in Greater Taichung’s Fongyuan District (豐原). His clients include politicians, whom he does not charge for his services, the report said.

Lin yesterday dismissed the report that Wu had consulted him, saying there was no way that Tsai would have gone to see him, and any suggestion that Wu himself had visited him was “simply preposterous.”

Wu had been to Greater Taichung on June 25 on family business, accompanied by Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lin Join-sane (林中森), but Lin said there were so many people there at the time, he would not have had time for a private consultation.

Although denying he had met Wu, Lin said he has books with the birth dates of many politicians, and because of his interest in fortune-telling and current affairs, he often does readings based on these details, as a way of confirming his studies.

He said he had done so for prospective premiers two years ago, when then-premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) stepped down because of public anger over the government’s handling of the Typhoon Morakot disaster. Lin predicted at the time that Wu was most likely to take over Liu’s position.

For the five special municipality mayoral elections last year, Lin rightly predicted that Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) would be re-elected, that then-Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) would win by a slim margin and that Eric Chu (朱立倫) would win in New Taipei City (新北市).

Asked by reporters about his predictions for the Ma-Wu ticket, Lin said the readings for the two men were complementary, so the indications are that they will win, although it will be tight race.